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From the Cleveland Free Times, August 21, 2002...
The Bigger Lovers
Since their 2000 debut, How I Learned to Stop Worrying, turned out to be one of that season's surprise rock 'n' roll gems, conventional wisdom would have it that these guys would be hard-pressed just to come up with something that could even be considered a fairly suitable follow-up, let alone a step forward. But conventional wisdom is what got mainstream rock 'n' roll where it is today, and that sort of predictable laissez-faire homogeny isn't what a band like the Bigger Lovers are about.
Honey in the Hive is as shockingly good a sophomore effort as could be imagined. Where How I Learned leaned on its stylish production (cross-fades, effects, live applause), Honey in the Hive delivers nothing but great songs. The Lovers take such wide-ranging pop influences as Pet Sounds-era Brian Wilson ("What Would it Take"), early Soft Boys (the damn-near perfect "Half Richard's") and smatterings of everything Jeff Lynne ever did. They then set it all up against some of the most ragged wall-of-guitar sounds in recent memory, taking pure pop where its needed to go for nearly 20 years now. -- Kurt Hernon
Honey in the Hive
(Yep Roc)
Grade: A